As per previous medical reports (see attached), patient was revived on 1st September inst., shortly before the limit set by the Hibernation Revival Authority. As numerous medical tests have shown, despite some discredited trials suggesting otherwise, patients not revived within 800 years of hibernation are likely to have suffered irreversible brain damage.

In patient X3R7's case, this cut off point was rapidly approaching and although no permanent cure for the condition which had led to his hibernation was yet available, the decision to confirm viability of the patient was taken.

As with other patients, however, matters did not proceed in a manner advantageous to the patient. His memory and cognitive functions appear to have suffered irretrievably during his hibernation to the extent that he could not even recall his name or identify a simple food utensil, referring to it using a meaningless syllable, i.e. "spork".

As with the other humans, I arranged for the painless cessation of life. It was the kindest thing.

[pawprint attached]

Fido Johnson, MDChief Psychiatric OfficerEarth Veterinary Unit One

(c) Lee Barnett, 2012

The Rules

You’ve got until evening on Saturday 3rd March, say midnight British time, (4pm Pacific) to put up either a one panel spot illustration or a two page comic book depiction of the entire story. The art can be pencilled, inked, coloured, lettered... entirely up to you. But ART ONLY – no story ideas, or suggestions. This is an opportunity to showcase your art and storytelling abilities.

We’ll announce on Sunday 4th March the winner who then gets to pick a new four word title and word, and I’ll write a new story which will go up Monday 5th March... which will start the whole thing running again for the following two weeks.

If possible, please can you make sure you've got your email address registered in your profile so we can email you to let you know you're challenging me next time (just in case you're not able to visit that weekend).

@dnewling - Thank you, and thanks for always taking part - much appreciated!

@Jason - I thought it was a decent experiment, this type of story, both for spot illos and as a comics story. However, writing is merely part of it, and if I miscalculated this time around, artists here have my sincere and genuine apologies.

@Budgie: thank you for the compliment. Are you going to put these stories into a volume, as you have with your previous stories, and publish them with their respective illustrations? Or would there be copyright problems?

@Jason A Quest: Yes, I think the problem is that the story was written as a memo style and not much action, which would not make it easy to illustrate. Still, considering what Budgie was given to work with, I think he did jolly well. Anyway, we're supposed to get stretched and challenged at Whitechapel.

@imaginarypeople - The 'Hang In There' poster just made my day, thank you!

Edit to add: The rest of the piece is also made of awesome! + @dnewling, nice spot illustration. I can understand this one's going to be hard from an artists' point of view, but you've both proved it's definitely do-able. I can't wait to see other people's interpretations.

@Imaginary People: The canine scientist is very funny, though I didn't quite get it until I read the story again: 'pawprint attached' (ha, ha!). So our world's going to go to the dogs in the 34th century, eh? Strange - I thought it was cockroaches who were supposed to rule the world after humans.

@DistractDelude: thanks for the compliment! I'm glad that Imaginary People and I have proven that although this one might be tricky, you can do something with it.